Problems and prospects of Indonesian films

Problems and prospects of Indonesian films

By M. M. S. Marthawienata

In conjunction with the National Film Day on March 30, The
Jakarta Post prepared the following three articles on foreign
(American) films' domination over local ones, the prospects of
national film industry, and the steps required to face new
challenges, including stiffer competition from television.

JAKARTA (JP): The history of foreign films' domination over
Indonesian ones stretches back as far as the beginning of this
century.

The local film industry began with the production of Lutung
Kasarung (a film of the legend of Lutung Kasarung) in 1926. Even
then, it was faced with the influx of imported films and
challenges in the forms of scientific and technological
innovations.

In the last five years, from 1990 to 1995, the local film
industry, despite its 70 years of existence, is still considered
in its infancy.

One general but logical question that has emerged is whether
or not the industry can be revived. If so, how long will it take
until production rolls again?

Many, particularly those in the film community, had expected
1994 to be a turning point. It turned out that during the entire
year, film production only increased from 24 of the previous
year, to 33 that year.

Will we be able to push production further in the coming
years? It is difficult to predict, particularly given the fact
that, up to the writing of this article, only one single movie,
Cemeng 2005 (The Last Prima Donna), by N. Riantiarno, has been
produced this year. This film was funded by the National Film
Council.

This is not the first time our national film production hit a
low. Domestic film production reached its peak in 1976 with 124
films.

The peak output was always followed by a slowdown. In some
cases, the slowdown was steep; in others, there were fluctuations
with figures that were still within encouraging ranges. A number
of factors were responsible for these fluctuations, some stemming
from the problems inherent to the film industry, some caused by
more general conditions.

Theater contribution

The first production of 1926 was followed by the growth in the
local drama or theater world, which from time to time gave birth
to talented and capable casts who would later on step into the
national film arena. This happened when production was
revitalized in 1948 -- after a long period of inactivity that
followed the first boom in 1941.

During the subsequent period of 1976-1990, besides artists,
the most capable film directors also came from theater groups.
Among them we had names such as Teguh Karya and Slamet Rahardjo
of Teater Populer, Arifin C. Noer of Teater Kecil, Putu Wijaya of
Teater Mandiri, and newcomer Nano Riantiarno of Teater Koma.

Even our Father of National Film, Usmar Ismail, started his
career in the theatrical world by joining the theater group Maya,
or Seniman Merdeka, together with Rosihan Anwar; he later became
a student of Dr. Huyung, also known as Hinatsu Eitaro, a Japanese
film figure of the Nippon Eiga-sha.

Between 1945 and 1950, Usmar Ismail was also a student of
local screenwriter and dramatist Andjar Asmara and R. M.
Soetarto, a local film figure of Berita Filem Indonesia. Soetarto
represented Indonesia in the hand over of Nippon Eiga-sha from
the Japanese government to the Indonesian government, following
Indonesia's independence in 1945.

Another pioneer of Indonesian films, Djamaludin Malik, once
financed the staging of the plays Pantjawarna (Five Colors) and
Bintang Timoer (Eastern Star). Other prominent figures in our
national film industry, Djadug Djajakusuma and Suryosumanto, were
also students of Dr. Huyung at Lingkaran Studi. Many say that
Lingkaran Studi later evolved into Kino Drama Atelier (KDA),
claiming to be the first formal school for the film community in
Indonesia.

Impact of war

World War II was a global force that slowly but surely took
its toll on the film industry in the Dutch Indies. Between 1945
and 1947 not a single film was produced.

One of the driving forces behind the reawakening of the film
industry in 1950 was Usmar Ismail. He started his NV Perfini film
company -- with the picture of a buffalo as the company logo. He
produced a down-to-earth film with very strong Indonesian
characters.

Usmar was able to do this because he was enjoying his creative
freedom and he was able to take advantage of the political
situation at that time. He produced Krisis dan Lagi-lagi Krisis
(Crisis and more Crises) when the country built its first public
housing in 1955. He also made Tamu Agung (The Great Guest) which
tells of Sukarno's incognito's visits to the kampongs.

That year, films that were run in the cinemas consisted of
pre-war movies only, that had been re-censored. At that time, as
many as 54 domestic films had to compete with 863 imported films,
including 660 from the U.S., 76 from China, 57 from England, 13
from France, and 12 from India.

Usmar wanted to break through the American film distribution
in first-class cinemas controlled by the American Motion Picture
Association in Indonesia (AMPAI). Meskin, owner of the Metropole
cinema in Central Jakarta, told him that there was no place for
Indonesian films in number one cinemas. Usmar insisted that
Meskin show his film at Metropole, shouting at him: "I'm an
American graduate!"

Meskin gave in to Usmar's demand and the result was startling.
Usmar's Krisis managed to stay for nine consecutive days!

The aborted Sept. 30 communist coup (G-30-S/PKI), caused
another slow period that lasted for five years, from 1965 to
1970. This was the slowdown that followed the peak of 1955.

The year 1955 marked the first Indonesian Film Festival (FFI),
which was considered as a driving factor for booms in the film
industry. FFI also played a major role in energizing the film
industry during the period of 1974 to 1990.

Trade war

If international trade wars -- including the one between
Indonesia and the U.S. -- could be viewed as a form of modern
war, then it was another war that destroyed the world of
Indonesian film during the period of 1990 - 1995.

The U.S. insisted that Indonesia eliminate nine items from its
film distribution regulations, including film quota and the
obligatory screening of Indonesian films.

The impact of the war was also amplified by the emergence of a
number of television stations, which were the manifestation of
innovation in science and technology.

Generally, an innovation such as this one is bound to affect
the film industry strongly. It started with the birth of RCTI,
followed by TPI, SCTV, ANteve, and Indosiar. We can add to all of
these the newly started cable television network Indovision.

The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) early
this year was just an early sign of the end to the economic war,
as this international body has yet to equip itself with the
mechanism for settling trade disputes between its member
countries.

Consequences

Indonesia has to fulfill a lot of obligations as the result of
its signing the treaty of the WTO establishment. One of the
things that has come under repeated attacks from the Motion
Picture Export Association of America (MPEAA) is Indonesia's
quota for imported films, that restricts the number of films, to
be imported to 160 per year.

Meanwhile, the regulation that governs the Indonesian film
industry, Law No. 8/1992 with all its implementations and
technical directives, can be regarded as sufficiently
comprehensive. It brings fresh hope in the form of deregulation,
including the lifting of the requirement to obtain production
permits. However, the U.S. still believes that this law is not in
line with the free trade spirit, since it still shuts the window
of opportunity for foreign investment in the film industry.

Another problem, as admitted by the chairman of Indonesian
Film Enterprises Association, Turino Djunaedi, is the difficulty
faced by the film producers in obtaining capable casts for films,
as well as production crew, because most of them have been
absorbed by the fast-growing television film industry.

All of the above, augmented by other factors, particularly
internal factors, such as the lack of scenario and script
writers, domination of imported films, and the rapid growth of
television stations, which take away a healthy portion of viewers
from Indonesian films, takes us to the conclusion that it will be
at least a few more years before we witness a revival of
Indonesian films.

Capital backing

Based on past experience, it seems that not until at least
five years from now we will have another boom such as the one we
had in the 1976-1990 era. This will happen only if we do our
homework. For example, we need to establish the bank of scripts
and the film financing corporation, as conceived by the leaders
of Indonesian film industry when they formulated the Basic
Framework for Development of National Film Industry for the DFN
(National Film Council) in 1980.

When it comes to financing, the film industry hungers for bank
loans. Up to now, bank loans for film production can be secured
only on an individual basis, to the producer, with his property
used as collateral. The loan is not granted based on the prospect
of the film to be produced.

In the eyes of bankers, a film is not yet considered a
feasible trade item. The same is true with investors; they still
do not view this industry as worthy of investments. A few that do
invest their money in the film industry do so because they like
films. Their decision is not based on a business calculation or
the intention to earn real profits.

Efforts have been made to turn the film industry into a
bankable and feasible sector for investment. The latest effort
came from the executive chair of the Association of Indonesian
Moving Cinema Enterprises (Perfiki), Hidayat Effendi, who
demonstrated the potential of bioskop keliling (mobile cinemas)
with his concept of Bioskop-17.

With support from the Coordinating Minister of Political
Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman, both PT Indosat and PT
Telkom have agreed to grant a long-term soft loan to Perfiki to
be used for film production. All these films will later be run in
Bioskop-17 or in bioskop keliling. However, the soft loan has yet
to be disbursed.

Market mechanism

There are multiple, basic, economic factors that insiders in
the film industry still cannot make out in their attempt to
improve the economics of this industry in Indonesia. Chief among
these is the market mechanism of films, which had been set by
imported films and was later dominated by film traders. The
majority of these traders are Indonesians of Chinese descent.

During its entire history, the film trade has been dominated
by those who act as brokers and who claim to represent public
tastes. It is often the case that these brokers positively assist
film production by injecting funds as the production is still in
its early planning stage.

The broker-based trading system, on the one hand, helps bridge
the interests of the producers -- most of whom live in Jakarta --
with cinema owners outside Jakarta. On the other hand, it has
often been evident that they are the ones who reap the biggest
profit, each time a particular movie becomes a hit, not the
producer.

When the U.S. government began to threaten with its Special
"Super 301" Act of 1990 which gives its the authority take any
action against countries suspected of unfair trading practices,
these brokers adopted the "wait and see" tactic; they halted
their activities, particularly when the film situation worsened
as the number of television stations increased, the cable network
began operations and parabolic antennas became widespread.

In a nutshell, the Indonesian film community has no control
over the film market in Indonesia and they have to rely heavily
on the role of brokers.

Short of discussing the market, until now experts in
Indonesian film economics have not been able to determine the
ideal number of film output per year. The chairman of the
Association of Indonesian Movie Theater Owners, H. M. Johan
Tjasmadi, made his own calculation, and came up with the figure
of 52 films per year.

Should we use this figure as our reference, the period of 1976
to 1991 could be considered the Golden Age of our film industry.
During this period, the lowest output level occurred in 1982, and
it stood at 52.

At the same time this Golden Age also meant that during that
period there was an overproduction that led to a glut, which in
turn created a deadlock, and this was one of the major factors
leading to the destruction of the film industry in Indonesia.